Summary Of The Trail Of Tears By John Ehle

The Trail of Tears begins a short time before the Revolutionary War, roughly 1771, with the birth of a Cherokee names Ridge. Ridge, who was one-quarter Scot, and his family settled in northwest Georgia with several other mixed-blood Cherokees. This territory is where the Cherokee Nation would eventually be centered around. When Ridge reached manhood, around the age of sixteen, he became a warrior. Doublehead, a corrupt Indian chief, taught and instructed Ridge to be a warrior and then took him on raids against white settlers. Ridge killed his first white man when he was seventeen but he disliked Doublehead as he was vicious and very corrupt; he often was suspected of taking bribes from government officials to give away tribal lands. Ridge grew into a very powerful and outstanding speaker in his tribe. When Doublehead was finally discovered for the man he was, the Cherokee leaders decided that he should be executed and Ridge was the one chosen for the job. Once this deed is accomplished, Ridge becomes the new Cherokee chief. By this time, the impact of white settlers has already interrupted the Cherokee way of …show more content…
Ehle is the author of eleven novels and six nonfiction books, the Trail of Tears being one of these. He won many literary awards during his career and, in 1997, he was added to the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame. Ehle’s reasons for writing the Trail of Tears are not specifically known but his love for history and the location of his birth are possibly two key components in the creation of this novel. Even though the Trail of Tears is a nonfiction book, Ehle, in my opinion, was biased towards the Indians. He told the story through the Indian’s point of view and often criticized the whites during the book. He accomplishes this bias by following the character Ridge and his tribe through out the